Do Cool Shit

Every Sunday Pollença has a big farmers market, and as should come as no surprise, I've been waiting *all week* to go. So you can imagine that I went a little overboard on the produce purchases come Sunday.

Farmers markets in Mallorca are a little different than they are back home. While in Santa Barbara all the produce is locally grown/made and 90% is organic, a lot of the produce here isn't local (you have to specifically ask which is and which isn't) and the whole "organic" movement really hasn't made it's way here yet. I've heard you can find organic fruits and vegetables, but I'm told you would have to travel to Palma or another larger city to find a store or market that sells it.

Regardless, you gotta work with what you have, so I bought all the fresh fruits, veggies, nuts and seeds, and even meat and cheese that I could find.

My spread of farmers market goodies. So many possibilities...!

Another aspect of the farmers market that I wasn't expecting - how much meat and cheese they sell (and since most of the meat is cured, it's all kept unrefrigerated). Any kind of cow or goat cheese you want - name it, they probably have it (and yes, this is as dangerous as it sounds). And while I've never been much of a huge meat-eater, it's hard to pass by the stand and not get anything, especially when they're passing out slices of perfectly salted and spiced ham or their specialty here - jamón sobrasada, a cured red sausage.

Meat and cheese assortment.

Slightly spicy peppers.

Veggies galore!

Olives on olives on olives...

Another surprise (and I'm hoping someone reading this can shed some light on this...): I asked two women at two different dried fruit booths what the purple dried fruit in the picture below was, and they both answered pineapple. I asked if it was colored or natural, and they answered that it was natural and that it was a variety that was purple when it was young. I tried to research this mysterious purple pineapple online but unfortunately came up with nothing. I'm still curious as to whether this magical purple pineapple exists, so if any of you reading this have any insight, please click the "Contact" page and let us know!

Mysterious dried "purple pineapple."

After lugging my spoils of fresh produce back to the apartment, I naturally wanted to get started on some goodies in kitchen. Homemade vegan almond pesto, beet hummus, and vegan veggie lettuce wraps stuffed with hummus and millet recipes to come soon! Stay tuned...